Follow the stuff that cities, counties and states build to attract and keep factories, jobs, stores, planes, colleges, tourists and residents.

It's not time for a new car

About this blog

By Brian Leaf

If they build it, will they come? Thatís the question reporter Brian Leaf answers by following the stuff that cities, county and states build to attract and keep factories, jobs, stores, airplanes, colleges, tourists and residents to burgs and
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If they build it, will they come? Thatís the question reporter Brian Leaf answers by following the stuff that cities, county and states build to attract and keep factories, jobs, stores, airplanes, colleges, tourists and residents to burgs and Ďburbs throughout the region.

My father and I will be driving into Chicago soon to see a concert. It’s a band we both really like, which makes it even better. It’s almost something you want to brag about when your father or mother has good musical taste.

I grew up listening to his records, becoming a fan of “his” music. I can now sing pretty much any lyrics to any song by The Who or Jimi Hendrix. I hate Abba. And I hate the movie Grease, even though, like any smart high school guy, I knew to pretend to like that fine Travolta film when girls were around. Thank you, dad, for good taste in music.

In planning the upcoming trip to Chicago for the concert, my dad said he’d buy my ticket as long as I drove. I lived in Chicago for many years and got used to driving in the city’s traffic. I could understand his logic.

Then, he said I could drive my mom’s car into downtown Chicago. He said “It’s not that I don’t trust the Saturn... well, actually it is that I don’t trust the Saturn.”

As I’ve mentioned several times before in this column, my trusty car, a 1996 Saturn SL1 in beautiful Homecoming Green, has more than a quarter-million miles on the odometer. In the past week and a half, it has gotten me from Freeport to Champaign and back, Bloomington/Normal and back, DeKalb and back, Oregon and back, three times to the lovely hills of Hanover and back, and all the little trips here and there in between.

That being said, my father has owned Chryslers from the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. Many from some of those later eras have, by Chrysler’s admission to me on Twitter, may have been built with quality or reliability not being a main priority. I can see why he’d be apprehensive of getting in a car with more than a quarter-million miles for a trip to the city when only one of his hit six figures.

Now, I speak no ill will of Chrysler’s current offerings. From my short Twitter-based conversation with the company, it appears they are actually paying attention to things like build quality and reliability these days. And that’s a great thing to hear from a company making some of the best looking automobiles. I want to know that a Challenger SRT8 isn’t going to have rusting doors in two years because they went cheap on the primer. It’s too beautiful!

I recently mentioned my car’s mileage on Twitter for some reason. I got back a reply saying “Sounds like it’s time for a new car.”

Why? As I knock on wood, it runs perfect, still gets me 38 miles per gallon on the highway, and best of all, I don’t have a car payment.

I’m pretty sure General Motors killed Saturn because they built the car that was built too well.